Download New Fund Manager for Bioventures

Press release regarding new Fund Manager: 6 July 2004
New Fund Manager for Bioventures
The Bioventures Management team of Heather Sherwin and Paul Miot are pleased to
announce new shareholders of the Fund Management Company. This company, whose
sole responsibility is the management of the Bioventures Fund, was previously owned by
Gensec Bank and Real Africa Holdings (RAH). RAH maintains its stake in the company
and Gensec Bank’s shares have been acquired by management and Java Capital (Pty)
Ltd. (Java Capital).
Java Capital is a, management owned, corporate finance and advisory business. Java Capital
offers the full range of corporate finance and advisory services to public and private clients and is
a registered sponsor of companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa. In
addition, Java Capital is a designated advisor to the JSE’s ALTx Exchange.
The Java Capital team founded the corporate finance division of Corpcapital in 1999 and bought
it out of Corpcapital in 2003. In 2002 the team was independently ranked by DealMakers
magazine as South Africa’s top corporate advisor and sponsor, both rankings by deal flow. In
2003 Ernst & Young ranked Java Capital as the top corporate advisor and DealMaker magazine
ranked Java Capital first in the category of legal advisor and second in the categories of sponsor
and investment advisor, all such rankings by deal flow, edging out established players such as
SCMB, Nedcor, Edward Nathan etc.
In addition to the transactions undertaken for public companies, the Java Capital team is active
for private companies, advising on acquisitions or disposals, management or leveraged buy-outs,
empowerment transactions, capital restructurings and turn-around strategies.
The Bioventures team is confident that Java can add significant value to the Fund particularly as
the portfolio companies mature towards exit. With a dynamic entrepreneurial company like Java
as our partner, we look forward to growing the Bioventures brand as an investor of choice in the
South African Biotech and Life Sciences industry. We also believe we can continue and even
grow the value we add to our portfolio companies.
Bioventures currently has around R10 million available for investment. The management team
and Java Capital plan to start raising capital for a second fund early in 2005.